Philadelphia, Pa. - (7/15/2015) – Endlessly searching for ways to better serve our student-athletes, Chestnut Hill College is pleased to announce that it has been selected as an Educational Programs Targeting Young and Emerging Adults challenge (Educational Programs Challenge) Phase One winner. The Education Programs Challenge is a component of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Mind Matters Challenge, which was developed in concert with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), to advance understanding of how to change culture, attitudes, and behavior in young adults about concussions.
 
The goal of the Mind Matters/Educational Programs Challenge is to improve concussion awareness education programs delivered to collegiate student-athletes, service members and their influencers so that all clearly understand a concussion is a serious medical condition requiring appropriate treatment. To do this, the Mind Matters Challenge focuses on two initiatives, first, a research challenge designed to identify key factors and methodologies to change the culture and behavior of college student-athletes and second, an educational program challenge meant to improve the effectiveness of concussion awareness programs delivered to student-athletes.
 
Joining a team of dedicated faculty and staff from Chestnut Hill College, led by William Ernst, Psy.D., the Phase One winners of the Educational Program Challenge are Creative Street Media Group (Steve Nels Katzenberger), MomsTEAM Institute, Inc. (Brooke de Lench), the University of South Alabama (Ashley Denise Marass), Science of Sport/University of Southern California (Ricardo Valerdi), Johnson C. Smith University (Rennae Williams). Phase One winners are selected based on the assessment of a joint NCAA-DOD review panel that at least one element of the submission is worth further development and exploration and will be presented with $25,000 award as well as an invitation to participate in Phase Two, which results in $75,000 of additional funding to develop a program demonstration.
 
"The strength of our proposal was its collaborative nature, which included members of the faculty as well as staff from the Departments of Student Life and Athletics. From the start Lynn Ortale, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Life and Lynn Tubman, M.Ed. Director of Athletics embraced the Peer Concussion Education proposal and provided considerable support for its development," commented Dr. Ernst. "We are very excited to develop this innovative program, which may help change the culture, attitudes, and behaviors about concussion in young adults."

Put forth by the Chestnut Hill College Proposal Team, comprised of William Ernst, Psy.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, Meredith Kneavel, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Department Head of the Undergraduate Psychology Department, Erin Fidler, MEd, ATC, CSCS*D, Head Athletic Trainer, Nikki Lockhart, MA, Associate Athletic Director for Academic Success and Community Engagement, Lynn Tubman, M.Ed., Director of Athletics, Lynn Ortale, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Life, Bethanie Paddock, M.A., and Lynn Brandsma, Ph.D. LPC, MT-BC, Associate Professor of Psychology, the goal of the Chestnut Hill College Peer Concussion Education Program will be to create a culture where student-athletes are stakeholders along with coaches, health care personnel (e.g. athletic trainers), and administrators with respect to concussion education, assessment, reporting, and management.
 
The peer concussion education program will be developed using a three step process. First, an online program manual will be developed by the proposal team in conjunction with feedback from a focus group of CHC student-athletes. The second step will consist of using the online manual to implement a pilot peer concussion education program in the CHC Department of Athletics with the women's soccer team and the men's lacrosse team.  The third step will consist of modifying and finalizing the online manual based on the experience obtained from implementing the pilot program.
 
The final product will consist of an online manual that provides a step-by-step approach for developing a peer concussion education program, video segments that demonstrate the role of coaches, administrators, and health care professionals in the training of the peer educators, power point presentations, and suggestions for adapting the program for high school student-athletes, high school students, college/university students, as well as other organizations that include large numbers of young adults such as the military.